In May, I traded in my Toyota Matrix (sporty station wagon, but still... a station wagon) for a Toyota Celica (sporty coupe). When I drove it to Wisconsin for our family vacation recently, both my sister and brother remarked that it's just "not a you car, Tanya." I had to ask what made something a "me" car? Apparently, a Tanya car is a dependable, reliable, and eminently practical car.
Yet, a lot of my friends saw me trade in the Matrix for a Celica and said, "That's just so much more the car for you, Tanya." (Don't worry, I'm not running with this car metaphor forever.) It brought home to me something I'd thought a lot about a few months ago -- people in different areas of your life see you very differently. (See?)
About six months ago, I got one of those internet quizzes. Typically I don't pass them on, but this one was interesting -- it was a "how well do you know me?" quiz. The results were interesting. To my sister and brother, I am a rebel (the one child who went against parental expectations); to many of my friends I'm not rebellious at all. To some, I am a risk-taker; to others, I am toeing the straight and narrow. To many of my friends, I am naive and innocent; to others, I'm jaded and weary.
We're a complicated race, humans. People frame the expectations of our behavior on the role in which they see us. To my younger brother and sister, I will always be the practical, responsible older sister, even as I walked away from what was expected of me and went my own direction. To a few more conservative friends, I am wild and crazy, while to my wild and crazy friends, I am dreadfully vanilla. To many who know me well, I'm wise and world-weary, whereas someone told me yesterday that in my presence on the 'net, I come off as very innocent.
So, when my brother and sister said, "This is sooo not a you car, Tanya," I merely said, "Perhaps this car represents a side of me that you don't see as my sibling."
